Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/73

 Their nervous and emphaticalftyle* 6 1

When O is joined to the end of words, it always denotes a fuperlative according to their univerfal figurative abbreviations of the great beloved name; thus with the Chikkafah," Iffe, "deer," and Iffe-Q^ " very great deer;" Tanafa y " a buffalo," Tanas-0, " a very extraordinary great buffalo j" which is, at leaft, as ftrong a fuperlative, as "?tf jva bti, fignifying " the houfe of the Omnipotent," or " the temple."

With the Cheerake Indians, A (wah to) bowwe fignifies " a great deer- killer :" it is compounded of Ahowwe, u a deer," Wab the period of the divine name, and Ta, a note of plurality. The title, " the deer-killer of God for the people," was, fince my time, very honourable among them, as its radical meaning likewife imports. Every town had one folemnly appointed ; him, whom they faw the Deity had at fundry times bleffed with better fucceis than the reft of his brethren, in fupplying them with an holy banquet, that they might eat, and rejoice, before the divine efTence. But now it feems, byreafon of their great intercourfe with foreigners, they have left off that old focial, religious cuftom ; and even their former noted hofpitaiity. I would alfo obferve, that though neceflky obliged them to apply the bear's-greafe, or oil, to religious ufes, they have no fuch phrafe as (Wah to] eeona ; not accounting the bear fo clean an animal as the deer, to be offered, and eaten in their religious friendly feafts ; where they folemnly invoked, ate, drank, fung, and danced in a circular form, to, and before, YO HE WAH. .

The Indian dialects, like the Hebrew language, have a nervous and em- phadcal manner of expreffion. The Indians do not perfonify inanimate ob jects, as did the oriental heathens, but their ftyle is adorned with images, companions, and ftrong metaphors like the Hebrews ; and equal in allego ries to any of the eaftern nations. According to the ages of antiquity, their war fpeeches, and public orations, always alTume a poetical turn, not unlike the found of the meafures of the celebrated Anacreon and Pindar. Their poetry is feldom exact in numbers, rhymes, or meafure : it may be compared to profe in mufic, or a tunable way of fpeaking. The period is always accompanied' with a founding vehemence, to inforce their mufical ipeech : and the mufic is apparently defigned to pleafe the ear, and affect the pafiions.

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